New Delhi, April 22 -- Trident Growth Partners, a private equity firm set up by former senior investment professionals from PremjiInvest and International Finance Corporation, has raised Rs 1,000 crore ($117.4 million) to mark the first close of its maiden fund.
The Mumbai-headquartered PE firm, led by managing partners Atul Gupta, Rajesh Ramaiah and Pravan Malhotra, now plans to exercise the greenshoe option to raise another Rs 1,000 crore for the fund.
The first close comes less than a year after Trident received regulatory approval to float the fund in July 2024.
The PE firm will lead or co-lead investments in the Series B stage and beyond a significant minority stake. While the fund is sector-agnostic, its investment themes include consumer, financial services, enterprise technology, manufacturing and healthcare.
The fund is anchored by Claypond Capital, the family office of Dr Ranjan Pai, Chairman of Manipal Group, along with more than 30 founders of well-known companies such as Lenskart, PolicyBazaar, Persistent Systems, Livspace, KreditBee, Amagi, Netcore, Addverb, Sagar Cements, and Triveni Polymers.
The fund has also raised capital from Indian sovereign fund-of-funds, Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and the Self-Reliant India Fund (SRI), along with leading family offices and general partners of prominent funds.
Gupta said the firm will offer more than just funding, bring operating experience, a "founder-first mindset", and a strong network to support companies. "Our focus is on backing resilient, growth-stage companies with strong unit economics that prioritize sustainability and governance", he said.
Trident's three managing partners have a total investment experience of more than 50 years. Gupta and Ramaiah worked together at PremjiInvest for 13 years and shared a 10-year history with Malhotra.
They have invested in several Indian companies that include Lenskart, Policybazaar, KreditBee, Myntra, Flipkart, Purplle, FirstCry, BigBasket, Amagi, Moglix, Best Value Chemicals, Gold Plus Glass, MedPlus and NephroPlus. Of their 40 prior investments, 14 companies became unicorns and eight floated IPOs or were acquired.
The team also has prior operational experience at Wipro, Reva Electric, Applied Materials and Lam Research, along with expertise in advising multiple companies with IPOs, M&A and capital markets.
Trident has already made its first investment by co-leading the Series B round in Spotdraft, a SaaS company in the contract lifecycle management space. It is in the final stage of closing its second investment.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.